Almost ten years to the day after Star Trek: The Animated Series debuted on DVD in November 2006, the first Trek sequel series arrives this Tuesday on Blu-ray; the first standalone high-definition release of this show.
While these HD masters first became available through September’s Star Trek 50th Anniversary Blu-ray collection, this month’s three-disc set is the release we know many of you have been waiting for, since it’s available at a significantly lower price point than that big box set.
Portions of this review originally appeared in our 50th Anniversary Box Set review.
This set carries over all the text and audio commentaries from the 2006 DVD release of The Animated Series, as well as the interview features – but aside from the 1080p presentation of the animated episodes, there is no new bonus material on the TAS discs at all, a somewhat disappointing discovery.
If you’ve seen the HD version of “More Tribbles, More Troubles” on the TOS Season 2 Blu-ray, it’s a solid indicator of the quality of this set’s TAS presentation. Things are a little sharper, and film grain is more prominent, but to be honest, there’s really not much improvement that can be made from Filmation’s somewhat under-detailed animation (see our sample screencaps below).
We were hoping for perhaps a new interview documentary feature, a new commentary or two, or at least a nicer copy of the 1970’s environmental awareness TV spot featuring the animated crew, but alas, none of that is included here.
Unlike the discs included with the 50th Anniversary box set, this collection returns to CBS/Paramount’s typical blue discs, with just title and episode listings on each label; along with an episode listing on the inside cover of the disc case.
Along with the Blu-ray discs, this set also includes a set of twenty-two art cards by longtime Trek artist Juan Ortiz. They’re packaged inside the outer slipcase in their own special black envelope.
These art cards are printed on high-quality, glossy paper, and each of Ortiz’s 2013 designs are accounted for.
While not everyone may be a fan of Ortiz’s designs, it’s not hard to see that The Animated Series is an almost perfect match for his style of artwork.
We’ve been rolling out our episode-by-episode gallery of Animated Series Blu-ray screencaps for the past few weeks, and there’s more yet to come – and you can see more sample caps down below on this page.
This Blu-ray edition of Star Trek: The Animated Series arrives in stores this Tuesday – so if it’s on your shopping list, we’d love it if you order links below.
 'The Animated Series'on DVD     |  'The Animated Series'on Blu-ray  |  'The Official Guide toThe Animated Series' |
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